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College decisions are a huge part of the process obviously.

The most important aspect of decisions, I would say is the communication aspect.

It's of the utmost importance to make sure that

you respond back to colleges in a timely manner.

I would even go as far as to eventually say that you should probably create

a separate email account because that's important.

You want to make sure that you are getting every bit of communication

that the colleges are sending.

Often times if you have an email account that you get a lot of junk mail,

you may not check that account regularly.

So I think it's important to make sure that you have an account,

if not dedicated, that you check regularly and

you check the spam and the chunk mail aspect.

Because sometimes you may get information in colleges and

universities, you want to make sure that you respond in a timely manner.

Colleges and universities have deadlines and they adhere to them, so

it's important to make sure that you are checking those communication regularly.

Also when filling up the application make sure that the phone number that

you give is accurate and please try your best to not

change the number throughout the course of this new year.

If you know there's a possibility that you may change your number or

that you changed your number regularly, I think it's important to

give a number that you know is going to be consistent and reliable and

is not going to change, because that's going to be important.

Initially, when we're talking about decisions, often times students and

misinformation, because they have the wrong contact or

communication, wrong contact information now.

On top of that what I think is even more important and again,

which we talked about earlier, is the research.

In order to make a really informed decision,

the research is going to be of the utmost importance.

It's to make sure that you're making an informed decision

when you're hearing back from schools.

So the more you know about the schools, and

their deadlines, and their scheduling guidelines for

the course of the year and accepting students that's going to be important for

you to be able to make decisions based on early admission, regular admission.

If it's a binding commitment, all of those things are important but

I think that if you know that up front that'll give you a basis to really make

an informed decision as you go about the college process and

you start getting back information from the particular schools.

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>> Now that we filled out the different parts of the application,

we have to take a look at the deadlines that the colleges and

universities are asking for in order to submit those documents.

For admission forms as well as financial aid forms,

it's very important to make sure that you're meeting these deadlines so

you don't put yourself at any disadvantage.

You'll find different terminology about how to apply to different colleges and

universities, from rolling admission, to preferred deadlines,

to early policies like early decision and early action, as well as regular decision.

Sometimes there's a commitment that a student needs to make

by using one of these plans.

Specifically at the University of Pennsylvania we have early decision.

You'll submit your forms by November 1st, receive a decision usually

by the middle of December, and if you are admitted to the university under an early

decision plan you are making the commitment to attend that university.

You will find higher admit rates under early decision so there is an advantage

and an opportunity if you know that that is the best school for you.

You will also receive your financial aid under early decision at the time of your

admission so you'll make sure that the finances work out for your family.

Under early action you have similar deadlines like early decision but

the student does not have to make a commitment to attend that institution.

So you'll meet the same deadlines of November 1 from mid December notification

but students can then apply to other colleges and

universities under regular decision.

Regular decision deadlines can range anywhere from January 1

all the way through the middle of February.

So once again, take a look at the deadlines at the colleges and

universities you are applying to.

But let's go back to the forms,

make sure that you're ready whether you're applying under early decision,

early action or regular decision that you have all your forms together.

So you can have as many college options open to you as possible.

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>> So David and Pamela, earlier you guys mentioned that you were juniors and

Nate and I are actually sophomores.

So we all went through the college application process about

two to three years ago.

Can you guys talk about what exactly you went through just a few short years ago?

>> Yeah, so for starters, a major tip that I will share as an undocumented

student is just the emphasis that other undocumented students can make it

to higher education and actually persevere like I am in this institution.

And one of the other major thing is just know all of the materials that you need

for your application process, every single piece of paper is really essential.

Along with knowing your deadlines,

because just a small little change in days really makes a difference.

>> That was huge for me, staying organized.

I used different kinds of folders and

wrote down the deadlines on the outside of the folders and

staying that organized allowed me to work on a little bit at a time and

not become overwhelmed by the amount that comes with applying to college.

Other things that really helped me were just staying excited for college, it's

a very intimidating process but I took that excitement and I brought it with me.

And I believe that's what helped me succeed in my first year and

enjoy my first year.

With the applications, I think the things that also

helped me were speaking to students and alumni.

I was fortunate to have the chance for interviews and

that's what really got me excited about specifically in Penn.

And if I had to do it over again,

I would certainly speak to more students to get that insider info.

>> I think you go off of your point about the application process often being

intimidating, one of the biggest tips that I can give is something very

cliche which is don't be afraid.

I think my biggest regret in this process was definitely being afraid of

where I was applying, what I was choosing.

Earlier I spoke about my dad and people in my family they don't often go to

college and I said that he didn't really know how I even knew about this school and

he doubted if I could get there.

And that's not a condemnation on my dad or anything.

He was a great dad, I love him so much.

It's just you can't let other people hold you back.

If this is your dream school, shoot for your dream school.

The worst that's going to happen is that you get rejected, and

you get over rejection after a while.

>> Yeah, so coming off of that also, you and I are both from Philadelphia.

So we get a lot of budget cuts.

And so my school, we're impacted in a way that we lost our guidance counselor, so

I didn't have a guidance counselor to help me with the college application process.

So all of that was done independently, and I think that was when I first feeling

myself or I felt bits and pieces of me actually growing up.

Like I didn't have someone want to tell me, did you submit this yet?

Did you apply for this?

Did you write this essay?

And I think that was when I realized that not everyone's going to be there for

me all the time.

And sometimes I have to grow up and take care of myself.

And I think something that really helped me in terms of applying for

colleges again, is also meeting with students at different institutions.

Learning about the scoop of what is great, what is not so great.

Essentially, when I was interested in Penn, I met with some of the current

students here and I was asking about their resources.

A lot of them talked about the cultural resource centers, and

that wasn't something that I even considered in high school.

I always knew I was Asian-American but I didn't know what that meant and then when

I participated in one of their high school outreach programs, the aspire program.

That was when I started asking myself, what does it mean to be Asian-American?

What does it mean to have this model minority myth,

stigmatizing our Asian-American community and things like that

really was what pivoted me into exploring my Asian-American identity.

And then when I looked at other universities,

some of them didn't have that.

And when I realized like the absence of those resources at other universities,

I realized that, that was something that I was interested in.

There was something that I wanted to gain a depth of knowledge outside of

the classroom.

And again, once I got accepted into Penn, that was something that I made a priority.

That was where I actually participated, gained leadership development.

That's where I met with so many students.

And I think had someone told me, this is what you should do, this is what you

should look into, that's something that I would tell other students as well.

>> It's easy to get lost in all the brochures and

pamphlets and over analyze every where that's trying to throw stuff at you, but

I would say don't be afraid to go with your gut feeling sometimes too.

For me specifically at Penn I wanted somewhere that promoted a well balanced

lifestyle between academics, social life and involvement in the community and

that really guided me to find my place in college.

>> And I also have had a really good experience with cultural centers that have

really helped me feel a little bit more at home away from home being in college for

right now.

And with that I was actually looking of to have a guidance counselor and

that she really emphasized the details with all the application processes.

The smallest details to meet a student, to meet an alum,

to meet anyone that you can meet that goes here or anyone.

I know you said something about professor's meeting,

professor is very important.

If you have the opportunity just take it.

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What to Expect When Hearing Back from Colleges

How to Apply to College

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